It Will Rain, And You Will Cry

[Lumos7]

This is a VGC tournament team, which is basically doubles but only getting 4 pokemon per battle, with item clause. The idea is to start with Politoad, or switch into Polytoad turn 1 to get rain up, which my entire team relies on. This team, though is very weak to Trick Room, and with Breloom gone I don't have a hard counter

Politoed (M) @ Wacan Berry
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Surf
- Protect
- Ice Beam
- Psychic

My ideal starter, but often I have to switch in to him to win weather wars. I Surf to proc Absorb Bulb on Ludicolo, Ice Beam and Psychic for coverage and countering Toxicroak, which effectively stalls Ludicolo indefinently. Protect is a must in doubles for all pokemon. Wacan Berry is the best item for Politoad (since leftovers is taken up by Metagross) to give politoad a chance against Zapdos and Thundurus and do some damage back with Ice Beam. Psychic KO's all opposing Toxicroak and puts a big dent in Hitmontops, but Perish Song or encore may be better. The problem is, Politoed rarely lives long enough to Perish Song the opposing teams, pokes, assuming I even have a third left (is it a draw in an official tournament if all pokemon are KO'ed simultaneously? What happens?). Encore is a good move, but with Politoed so slow I may merely lock them into a good move. Politoad is reasonably resiliant, but the damage output is very low, and mostly he serves for putting up weather, proccing Absorb Bulb, and healing Toxicroak, so should I try the choice specs variant?

Ludicolo (F) @ Absorb Bulb
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Surf
- Giga Drain
- Fake Out
- Ice Beam

This guy is one of my two Swift Swimmers, which is legal in VCG. Absorb Bulb is a nice S. Atk boost with Politoad, fake out is nice in doubles, and Scald and Giga Drain are my duel stabs that can pretty much trample everything in VCG. Ice Beam is nice coverage, sice Protect isn't used much while leading. Ludicolo has lackluster power, at least compared to Kingdra, and I'm thinking Kingdra is a better Swift Swimmer for the usual 1 slot left open, despite the lack of survivability, so in what situations should I choose Ludicolo over Kingdra, if any? Should I maybe replace him even?

​ Scizor @ Leftovers / Sitrus Berry
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -S.Atk)
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- Protect / Roost
- Superpower / Brick Break

Scizor is pretty good at doubles, his prowess in priority is unmatched. I'm going for the bulkier variant, since I have enough super-fast sweepers regardless. Bullet Punch, of course, for that fabled 138 base power priority. Bug Bite for a nice, strong secondary stab and stealing those annoying Chople and Sitrus Berries. Protect is Protect, but Roost might be a better option. The last slot for a fighting move, mostly for hitting a Chople Berry-less Tyranitar, but I'm not sure. Brick Break will kill a Tyranitar without Chople Berry, but Superpower is better against other pokemon, though it hurts my offensive capabilties for later.The item is Leftovers for Roost, or Sitrus Berry for Protect, but I'm open minded to the vice-versa or even completely different options.

Kingdra (M) @ Dragon Gem
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Muddy Water
- Dragon Pulse
- Protect
- Ice Beam

Kingdra is one of my best sweepers. Less survivability than Ludicolo, but he hits harder and hits more things. Thus I often pair him with Breloom or Thundurus for disruption. Muddy Water is handy in that it doesn't hurt mypartner, and Dragon Pulse and Ice Beam for coverage. Kingdra hits so hard on so many things, doing 75% often with a Dragon Gem boosted Dragon Pulse, but should he be given a Sitrus Berry to increase survivability? A problem I have with double swift swim is that they hit hard, but if rain goes away, or trick room goes up, they don't help much at all.

Thundurus (M) @ Electric Gem
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunder Wave
- Protect
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunder

We all know Thundurus, and most all of us have raged against the might of priority Thunder Wave. This Thundurus is no different, just spam Thunder Wave, then nuke with Thunder and HP Ice for amazing coverage. He is useful against a variety of threats, but he isn't as useful as other members of my team, but I can't think of a suitable replacement that doesn't make me wish for priority Thunder Wave, even with an increase in power. He often dies very quickly, and therefore doesn't really have time to KO anything, though he would almost definently 2HKO them. I'm thinking of switching him to Therian form once BW2 comes out, for the increase in power, or just Rotom-W for a bulkier, if slower, attacker.

​Toxicroak @ Black Sludge
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -S.Atk)
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch
- Fake Out
- Protect

Toxicroak is a great rain staple. Constant healing from Dry Skin, Black Sludge, and Drain Punch, and Toxicroak is very hard to kill. Fake out for flinching a threat, and Sucker Punch for priority. Toxicroak mostly counters other Rain teams, but is useful against any sort of threat not named Cresselia. I even send him out against sandstorm teams, since Drain Punch + Scizor's Superpower = Tyranitar Ko'ed. Toxicroak, I have found out, creates a nice defensive and offensive lead, but without a Surfing team-mate, Toxicroak have very little survivability, and is an easy KO for anyone with a Psychic attack. I may give him a Focus Sash just to prevent that.


The Replaced Pokemon

Azumarill (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Aqua Jet
- Superpower
- Waterfall
- Iron Tail

Sharpedo (F) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Speed Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Crunch
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Protect

Breloom (F) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Spore
- Seed Bomb
- Protect
- Mach Punch


This team has been played a good a amount on PO, but a huge lack of VGC community (TCG is all the rage where I'm from) means I haven't been able to play it hardly at all outside the computer. Despite this, it should do reasonably well, and with a few tweaks here and there it could be great.




Exportable

Politoed (M) @ Wacan Berry
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Surf
- Protect
- Ice Beam
- Psychic

Ludicolo (F) @ Absorb Bulb
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Scald
- Giga Drain
- Fake Out
- Ice Beam

Toxicroak (M) @ Black Sludge
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Sucker Punch
- Drain Punch
- Fake Out
- Protect

Kingdra (M) @ Dragon Gem
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Muddy Water
- Dragon Pulse
- Protect
- Ice Beam

Thundurus (M) @ Electric Gem
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunder Wave
- Protect
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunder

Scizor (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Superpower
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- Protect​

 

[The Knights of Wario Land]

This team is not very well tested, and still has a lot of work to do, but it should do reasonably well.

Thus it should not really be on here. A team should not just be a therorymoned thing but something that has actually been tested out reasonably before putting it on the RMT archive.

Descriptions really need to be expanded, and this team looks strikingly similar to Brendan Zheng's rain team, minus like one or two movepool changes.

 

[Lumos7]

1. Well, I've played a reasonable amount of games (75-125, roughly, in all of this teams assorted forms) on it on PO, but where I'm from has a practically non-existant VGC community. Testing depends on how you define it, and I was speaking of against serious teams face-to-face, not just agaist rogue teams being tested out on PO.
2. Who's Brendan Zheng?
3. I'll start to work on the descriptions immediately.

Edit: I looked up Brendan Zheng's team, and that is basically a typical rain team, and you can't really say all rain teams that 3 or 4 of the same pokemon are copies of one another.
The only real distinction of mine and Zhengs teams is that we both use double Swift Swim. Almost every Rain team uses Toxicroak, or Thundurus, or both, though I find it encouraging that a team I made by myself is so similar to someone who has played VGC their whole life, as opposed to me, as this is my first year.

 

[Lumos7]

No one posting?

 

[Ravix]

What do you want us to say? This is a very standard rain team with odd movesets and EV's that don't really make any sense. Change your descriptions so that they are current please.

 

[Lumos7]

I'm very new at this, and I'm going with a tried and true approach to see what the game is like before I start making anything new or creative that will likely fail horribly if I tried it right now.
I'm pretty sure the EV's/Moveset's are standard (except for Politoed, that was the only Politoed I could get), and if not can you tell me what to change? Also, I'm pretty sure all of my descriptions are up-to-date, I don't know what you're talking about.

 

[CJorex]

If you want a Swift Swimmer to replace Ludicolo, maybe you should try Kabutops? It is a Swift Swimmer, but unlike Ludicolo and Kingdra it is a physical attacker. Also, hardly anyone uses it, so a lot of people don't know just how good it is. Kabutops also has Aqua Jet, to partially help with your Trick Room problem.
Here is the moveset:

Kabutops
Item: Focus Sash/Life Orb/Rock Gem
Ability: Swift Swim
Nature: Adamant
EV's: 4HP/252Atk/252Spd
Moves:
-Waterfall
-Rock Slide
-Aqua Jet/Low Kick
-Protect

 

[Lumos7]

^ I've actualy tried Kabutops, but he is incredibly fragile, so I am hesitant.
I'll go ahead and try it again though.